#jacobite

On January 31st 1788 Prince died in Palazzo Muti, Rome, he was 67.

A longer than normal post, but he had a profound affect on events in Scotland, so it’s merited……

Well he actually died the day before, but you’ll need to read the post in full as to why history gives this date!

With Bonnie Prince Charlie featuring in a number of my posts throughout the year I will cover the latter part of his life today, basically after Culloden.

When Prince Charles escaped from the battlefield at Culloden, he left almost all his personal possessions behind. During the months that followed he was hunted by government forces throughout the western Highlands and Isles. He was helped by many loyal followers, and this period gave rise to some of the most enduring myths of the rising.

I think it shows the loyalty he was given by the Highlanders that he managed to evade capture, over the five months after Culloden and no doubt execution. He was sheltered, smuggled from hiding place to hiding place, and given clothes and other items, by Gaels who risked their own safety to help him.

Charles eventually escaped to France and then Rome. Many of his followers were captured and some executed. Others were forced into exile and had their lands forfeited. The government was determined to eliminate the Jacobite cause once and for all.

The Highlands were disarmed and even highland dress was banned for a time. The breakdown of the clan system accelerated, while improved roads and forts led to more effective government control of remoter areas.

On reaching the safety of France Charlie sked King Louis XV for 20,000 more soldiers to help “finish the job”. The myth propagated by his Hanoverian enemies was that Prince Charlie abandoned Scotland after Culloden. The memorandum written by the Prince to the King of France on 5th November 1746 provides evidence, in the Prince’s own hand, that directly contradicts this myth.

In the letter,seen in the third pic, the Prince wrote: “I never lacked Scottish subjects ready to fight. What I did simultaneously lack was money, supplies and a handful of regular troops; with but one of these three, I would today still be master of Scotland and probably the whole of England.”

He goes on to claim he could have marched into London “unopposed" after his clear victory over General Cope’s troops at Prestonpans in September 1745 had he 3,000 more soldiers under his command.

At the time, Duke of Cumberland and the British Army were then in Flanders fighting the French and their allies in the Austrian War of Succession.

Things turned sour for Charles when the French and English reached a peace deal, where they recognised the right of King George and his successors to sit on the British throne, ending their support for the Stuart cause. Prince Charles was then expelled from France.

As far as the French Government were concerned, Prince Charles and his Highland supporters had served their purpose as pawns in their wider political game. The Prince had now become an embarrassment to them and was of no further value. Not that the peace lasted that long, both countries were at it again within ten years.

At one stage, accepting the fact that as a Catholic he was unlikely to ever be crowned King Charles indicated to his followers he was willing to become a Protestant in order to accede to the throne. In 1750 he visited London incognito, staying at a safe house near Holborn and converted to Protestantism by receiving Anglican Communion. But due to his increasingly brusque and argumentative manner he managed to alienate himself from the French foreign minister in 1759 who was planning an invasion of England in the midst of the Seven Years’ War between Britain and France. After Prince Charles’ father James III died in 1766, Pope Clement XIII recognised James as King of England, Scotland and Ireland but did not bestow the same title on his son Prince Charles.

Over the decades as he grew older and bitter about his lost cause he turned to alcohol as his dream for restoring his lineage faded.

The Prince is known to have travelled around Europe in the years that followed, trying to garner support for another tilt at regaining the crown for the Stuarts, Often using an alias, he spent a couple of years in Basel, Switzerland as W. Thompson physician and ‘gentillhomme Anglais.’ He later spent time in Florence in 1774, where he was provided with a residence by Prince Corsini, he used the alias Count of Albany at this time. Charles’s health deteriorated in later life, and he was reported to have suffered from asthma, high blood pressure, swollen legs and ulcers. He suffered constantly from his illnesses, which required him to be carried by his servants to and from his carriage.

After separating, she claimed that Charles had physically abused her. This claim was generally believed by contemporaries. The historian Douglas states that Charles had been drinking following Saint Andrew’s Day celebrations, and after accusing Louise of infidelities, may have attempted to rape her, resulting in her screaming to the extent that the household servants intervened. In the years that followed, the pope awarded Louise half of Charles’s papal pension, and Charles’s international reputation was greatly damaged. He was said to live an increasingly isolated and unhappy life, especially after his brother Henry agreed to house Louise at his estate.

By 1783 his health was deteriorating swiftly to the extent that during one bout of illness he was giver the last rites. Although Charles recovered, he agreed to create a new will, and signed an act of legitimation for his illegitimate daughter Charlotte. Charles also gave her the title “Duchess of Albany” in the peerage of Scotland and the style “Her Royal Highness”, but these honours did not give Charlotte any right of succession to the throne. His daughter stayed with him until his death, she herself only lived for less than two years dying unmarried at Bologna in November 1789

Charles died in Rome of a stroke on 30th January 1788, the cardinals stated officially that he died on the morning of 31st January, as it was deemed unlucky to have him declared dead on the same date as his great-grandfather, King Charles I, who of course was covered in an extensive post yesterday.

On his death, a cast of his face was made, and his body was embalmed and placed in a coffin of cypress wood. Adorned with the Order of the Thistle, the Cross of St Andrew, the Order of the Garter and the Cross of St George

Among other things, one of the main characters, Jacobite true believer Flora MacIvor, is described by her brother to would-be suitor Edward Waverley thusly:

"...since she could spell an English book she has been in love with the memory of the gallant Captain Wogan..."

and

"for, to tell you the truth, I think her more in love with the memory of that dead hero than she is likely to be with any living one..."

The Jacobite

45 407 The Lancashire Fusilier LMS Stanier Class 5-4-6-0 ‚Black Five’ Hier auf dem Glenfinnan Viaduct, Inverness-shire (Siorrachd Inbhir Nis), Schottland.\ Der Zug fährt von Ford Williams (An Gearasdan) nach Mallaig und wurde nach den Jakobiten, deren letzter Aufstand gegen die britische Krone 1745 in Glenfinnan seinen Anfang nahm.

The Jacobite

45 407 The Lancashire Fusilier LMS Stanier Class 5-4-6-0 'Black Five' Here on the Glenfinnan Viaduct, Inverness-shire (Siorrachd Inbhir Nis), Scotland The train runs from Ford Williams (An Gearasdan) to Mallaig and was named after the Jacobites, whose last uprising against the British Crown began in Glenfinnan in 1745.

The Jacobite

William Hamilton of Bangour, 1704 - 1754. Poet

Artist: Gavin Hamilton (Scottish, 1723 - 1798)

Date: ca. 1748

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland

Description

William Hamilton (1704–1754) was a Scottish poet associated with the Jacobite movement.